Creating content associations through visual techniques in a content framework system

ABSTRACT

A content framework system and method. The content framework system comprises a content infrastructure, a content flow management system, and a content association tool. The content infrastructure comprises content management system. Each of the content management systems comprises content. The association creation tool is for generating a first set of associations metadata linking the content management systems together. The user interface system is for visually rendering the content and the first set of associations metadata.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Technical Field

The present invention relates to a system and associated method tovisually render associations for associating content within a contentframework system.

2. Related Art

Randomly searching for data within a system may be difficult and verytime consuming. Therefore there is a need to provide an easy andspecific way to search for data within a system.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides a content framework system, comprising:

a content infrastructure comprising content management systems, whereineach of said content management systems comprises content;

an association creation tool for generating a first set of associationsmetadata linking said content management systems together;

a user interface system for visually rendering said content and saidfirst set of associations metadata.

The present invention provides a method, comprising:

providing a content framework system comprising a contentinfrastructure, an association creation tool, and a user interfacesystem, wherein the content infrastructure comprises content managementsystems, and wherein each of said content management systems comprisescontent;

generating by said association creation tool, a first set ofassociations metadata linking said content management systems together;and

visually rendering by said user interface system, said content and saidfirst set of associations metadata.

The present invention provides a process for integrating computinginfrastructure, comprising integrating computer-readable code into acomputing system, wherein the code in combination with the computingsystem comprises a content framework system comprising a contentinfrastructure, an association creation tool, and a user interfacesystem, wherein the content infrastructure system comprises contentmanagement systems, wherein each of said content management systemscomprises content; and wherein the code in combination with thecomputing system is adapted to implement a method for performing thesteps of:

generating by said association creation tool, a first set ofassociations metadata linking said content management systems together;and

visually rendering by said user interface system, said content and saidfirst set of associations metadata.

The present invention provides a computer program product, comprising acomputer usable medium having a computer readable program code embodiedtherein, said computer readable program code comprising an algorithmadapted to implement a method for linking content management systemswithin a content infrastructure, said content management systems eachcomprising content, said method comprising the steps of:

generating by an association creation tool, a first set of associationsmetadata linking said content management systems together; and

visually rendering by a user interface system, said content and saidfirst set of associations metadata.

The present invention advantageously provides a system and associatedmethod to provide an easy and specific way to search for data within asystem.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram view of a computer system comprisinga content framework system, in accordance with embodiments of thepresent invention.

FIG. 2 illustrates an infrastructure view of the content frameworksystem of FIG. 1, in accordance with embodiments of the presentinvention.

FIG. 3 illustrates a block diagram view of internal components withinthe content framework system of FIGS. 1 and 2, in accordance withembodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 4 illustrates a computer system used for linking together andproviding associations for content within a content framework system, inaccordance with embodiments of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram view of a computer system 2comprising a content framework system 44, in accordance with embodimentsof the present invention. In an organization (or organizations)comprising multiple teams located across many geographies, it is commonto have several teams within the organization solving similar problemsconcurrently. A challenge for the organization is to provide a processto allow each of the teams to create solutions for problems within theorganization and share the solutions with others within theorganization. Therefore, others within the organization may takeadvantage of the solutions while adding their own value to thesolutions. Sharing solutions within the organization may be accomplishedif each of the teams has an awareness of other teams and an ability tointeract with each other. Alternatively, the organization may comprise aplurality of enterprises (e.g., different companies, business partners,customers, or any combination thereof, etc.). Teams may comprise interalia, technical teams (e.g., software developers, hardware developers,architects, etc.), business process teams (e.g., value chains, supplychains, manufacturing lines, etc.), marketing teams (e.g., webmarketing, publications, etc), management teams (e.g., finance, productmanagement, resource management, etc.), etc. Typically, there areseveral locations within a computer system/network where the teams maylook for different types of information. The information (e.g., content)may be specific to, inter alia, disclosed intellectual property,technical solutions that are part of a product or project, businessinformation, etc. The content framework system 44 comprises a pluralityof server/databases 15 a . . . 15 d. Each of the server/databases 15 a .. . 15 d comprises content management systems 12 a . . . 12 d formanaging content within each of server/databases 15 a . . . 15 d. Thecontent framework system 44 additionally comprises content associationtools 17 a . . . 17 d used for linking together and providingassociations for the information (i.e., content within contentmanagement system 12 a . . . 12 d) so that the individual teams withinthe organization may locate associated content within the contentmanagement systems 12 a . . . 12 d to collaborate with each other toprovide solutions to problems existing within the content. The contentassociation tools 17 a . . . 17 d are additionally used to visuallyrender the content and associations on a display apparatus (e.g.,display apparatus 5) so that innovators 72 (i.e., a user that createsnew content or contributes to existing content within the contentframework system 44 as described in the description of FIG. 3, infra)may create, delete, or update the associations based on the visualrendering of the content and associations.

The computer system 2 comprises a plurality of terminals 4, plurality ofdisplay apparatuses 5, a computer network 10, and the content frameworksystem 44. The content framework system 44 comprises a plurality ofserver/databases 15 a . . . 15 d. The plurality of terminals 4 areelectrically connected through the computer network 10 to theserver/databases 15 a . . . 15 d. The computer network 10 may be anycomputer network known to a person of ordinary skill in the artincluding, inter alia, the Internet, an intranet, a local area network(LAN), a wide area network (WAN), etc. The plurality of server/databases15 a . . . 15 d each comprise a content management system 12 a . . . 12d (i.e., content infrastructure 12 in FIG. 2), content flow managementtools 19 a . . . 19 d, content association tools 17 a . . . 17 d,content manipulation tools 26 a . . . 26 d, joint development tools 24 a. . . 24 d, community tools 28 a . . . 28 d, and access and securitytools 30 a . . . 30 d. Each of content systems 12 a . . . 12 d comprisescontent. Content may comprise any content that may be shared within anorganization. For example, content may comprise, inter alia, data,software applications, shared software routines used by a plurality ofsoftware applications, software code developed by a plurality of users,etc. Each of the content management systems 12 a . . . 12 d may compriseany type of content management systems including, inter alia, adistribution system, a management system, a remote services system, ashared source system, etc.

Content within a distribution system comprises software and/or operatingsystems. A distribution system is used when technical teams within anorganization submit content for products (e.g. publications, softwareand operating systems) into a distribution center to send to customersand employees of the organization. Metadata regarding the content iscollected by the distribution system so that each of the objects (e.g.publications, software and operating systems) may be associated witheach of the other products within the distribution system. Collection ofthe metadata also aides in a discovery process to locate of any of theproducts within the distribution system. The distribution system is acentralized control system that coordinates all the submitted content.The distribution system may comprise a relational database, such as,inter alia, DB2, AIX, Linux, etc., and/or an operating system's filesystem. The content within the distribution system, such as, inter alia,executable files, components such as shared libraries, or installablefiles for programs (i.e., a set of code that can execute a softwareproduct) are stored in the DB2 or file system so that a user or anotherprogram can gain access to them.

Content within a management system comprises data. The management systemis used for creating, controlling, and disseminating the data. Themanagement system may be used to deliver data to a website. The data maycomprise, inter alia, data from web HTML pages, data from wordprocessing files, data from XML documents, data from PDF files, etc. Themanagement system is used to group related documents and/or a specificcontent file together to allow users to locate and read the documents.The management system may provide information about projects, processes,products, services, etc. Often times a management system is used manageweb documents with a taxonomy structure that helps group relateddocuments together to aid in navigation and searching for documents.

Content within a remote services system comprises software routines usedby a plurality of software applications. The remote services system is aframework that allows individual software applications to locate sharedroutines used by a plurality of software applications. The sharedroutines can be a routine, library, function, an application, or anyother remotely invoked service. A software routine that may be used bymany software applications is registered in a directory along withinformation describing its function and its interface. When anindividual software application is running and requires a particularservice (i.e., provided by the software routine), the remote servicessystem it can look up the requested service in the directory and callthe software routine that provides the requested service.

Content within a shared source system comprises documents that can becollaborated upon by a plurality individuals such as software code,designs, processes, etc. The shared source system may group contenttogether (e.g. software code grouped together within a softwaredevelopment project). For example, the shared source system may groupsource code files (such as C++ or Java files, headers, etc.) together asrelated by development projects. Software developers may then extract,modify, and replace source files as part of that project.

The content flow management tools 19 a . . . 19 d are used forcontrolling content flow within and between each of the contentmanagement systems 12 a . . . 12 d . The content association tools 17 a. . . 17 d are used for linking together and providing associations(e.g., metadata) for the content within the content management systems12 a . . . 12 d. The associations (e.g., metadata) allow associatedcontent from the content management systems 12 a . . . 12 d to be linkedtogether so that a user may use the associations (e.g., metadata) tosearch for and locate the associated content. The associations (e.g.,metadata) are linked together to provide a “web” of interconnectedassociated content stored across an organization. The associations(e.g., metadata) and provide a map to locate the associated content fromthe content management systems 12 a . . . 12 d.

The content manipulation tools 26 a . . . 26 d comprise the tools toallow teams within an organization to create, modify, and promotedifferent types content within the content framework system 44. Theaccess and security tools 30 a . . . 30 d comprise the tools to allowadministrators of the content framework system 44 the ability to controlparties (i.e., users) who may access or manipulate content within thecontent framework system 44. The community tools 28 a . . . 28 dcomprise the tools to allow different teams within an organizationcollaborate and add value to the content within the content frameworksystem 44. The joint development tools 24 a . . . 24 d comprise thetools to allow different teams within the organization to leverageknowledge and technology regarding the content within the contentframework system 44. The content manipulation tools 26 a . . . 26 d,joint development tools 24 a . . . 24 d, access and security tools 30 a. . . 30 d, and community tools 28 a . . . 28 d in combination allowmultiple teams to contribute to a technology (i.e., content within thecontent framework system 44).

FIG. 2 illustrates an infrastructure view of content framework system 44of FIG. 1, in accordance with embodiments of the present invention. Incontrast with FIG. 1, FIG. 2 illustrates the server/databases 15 a . . .15 d, the content management systems 12 a . . . 12 d, the content flowmanagement tools 19 a . . . 19 d, the content association tools 17 a . .. 17 d, the content manipulation tools 26 a . . . 26 d, the jointdevelopment tools 24 a . . . 24 d, the community tools 28 a . . . 28 d,and the access and security tools 30 a . . . 30 d from FIG. 1 asinfrastructure layers in FIG. 2. The server/database 15 infrastructurecomprises the server/databases 15 a . . . 15 d. The contentinfrastructure 12 comprises the content management systems 12 a . . . 12d. The content flow management tool infrastructure 19 comprises contentflow management tools 19 a . . . 19 d. The content association toolinfrastructure 17 comprises content association tools 17 a . . . 17 d.The content manipulation tool infrastructure 26 comprises the contentmanipulation tools 26 a . . . 26 d. The joint development toolinfrastructure 24 comprises the joint development tools 24 a . . . 24 d.The community tool 28 infrastructure comprises community tools 28 a . .. 28 d. The security tool 30 a . . . 30 d infrastructure comprises thesecurity tools 30 a . . . 30 d.

FIG. 3 illustrates a block diagram view of internal components withinthe content framework system 44 of FIGS. 1 and 2, in accordance withembodiments of the present invention. For illustration purposes, thecontent management systems 12 a . . . 12 d within the contentinfrastructure 12 have been labeled as: a shared source system 12 a, adistribution system 12 b, a management system 12 c, and a remoteservices system 12 d. The shared source system 12 a comprises sourcedatabase 48. The joint development infrastructure comprises a sharedsource tool 25. The shared source tool 25 is used to create and modifycontent (e.g. software, hardware design, architectural designs, processflows, source code, etc.) that may be collaborated upon by multiplepeople. The group of multiple people collaborating on the content withinthe source database 48 is managed by the community infrastructure 28comprising a community tool 29 that provides access to the shared sourcetool 25. An example of such a tool is Eclipse software used inconjunction with a Source Forge database to collaborate on software 5development. Source code (example of content) comprises source filesthat make up a project (e.g., a software program). The source files arestored in the source database 48 within the shared source system 12 a.The source database 48 may have a higher level interface to save andaccess content, such as a database client or a web interface. In thiscase an instance of the acquisition tool 55 within the content flowmanagement infrastructure 19 provides the interface from the sharedsource tool 25 into the source database 48. The shared source tool 25 isused to locate, access, and manipulate the source files in the sourcedatabase 48. Additionally, the joint development infrastructure 24comprising the shared source tool 25 are used to develop and testapplications in the case of software development. Security and accesscontrols on the content stored within the source database 48 by theshared source tool 25 is provided by the access and securityinfrastructure 30. The access and security infrastructure 30 defines whomay create, modify, or delete content within the database 48.Additionally, the access and security infrastructure 30 defines who mayuse the shared source tool 24. The distribution system 12 b comprises abinaries database 51 (e.g., a database or a file system) for storingexecutable or installable files (e.g., content used for distribution ofproduct to customers and defined as binaries). Binaries in the binariesdatabase 51 are acquired through an instance of acquisition tool 55. Theinstance of the acquisition tool 55 is not the same as the instance ofthe acquisition tool 55 used to acquire source code for the sharedsource system 12 a. Metadata about the binaries (e.g. the name andversion of the product) stored in the binaries database 51 are collectedthrough the acquisition tool 55 and stored in the metadata database 65.Access to the binaries database 51 and the acquisition tool 55 (e.g.,who may submit, update, or delete content) is controlled by the accessand security infrastructure 30. The management system 12 c comprises acontent database 53 for storing content comprising data. For example,the content may comprise, inter alia, data comprising an HTML object, anXML object, a SGML object, a word processing object, a JPG object, a PDFobject, any electronically viewable or manipulatable object, etc. Thecontent database 53 may comprise, inter alia, a relational database, anobject database, a file system, any mechanism used to store electronicdocuments on a system for later retrieval and/or access, etc. Content inthe content database 53 are acquired through an instance of theacquisition tool 55 within the content flow management 19infrastructure. This instance of acquisition tool 55 is not the same asthe instance of the acquisition tool 55 used to acquire source code forthe shared source system 12 a or the binaries in the distribution system12 b. The remote services system 12 d comprises a services database 49for storing shared routines used by a plurality of softwareapplications. A software routine that may be used by many softwareapplications is registered in a directory 56 along with informationdescribing its function and its interface. Remote services stored in theservices database 49 are acquired through an instance of acquisitiontool 55. Information about the remote services is passed from theacquisition tool 55 to a directory 56. This instance of the acquisitiontool 55 is not the same as the instance of the acquisition tool 55 usedto acquire source code for the shared source system 12 a, binaries inthe distribution system 12 b, or data in the management system 12 c.

The content flow management infrastructure 19 infrastructure comprises ametadata database 65, an acquisition tool 55, a content management tool54, and a directory 56. The content flow management infrastructure 19 isused to provide high level access to content stored in the contentinfrastructure 12 by other systems. The content flow managementinfrastructure 19 may be used to submit content into or extract contentout of the content infrastructure 12, or to access the content in thecontent infrastructure 12. The content flow management infrastructure 19provides access to content in the content infrastructure 12 through theinterface infrastructure 18, community infrastructure 28, jointdevelopment infrastructure 24, content association infrastructure 17,and in data manipulation infrastructure 26. The acquisition tool 55 isfor allowing users/developers (e.g., teams within an organization) tointeract with the content framework system 44 in order to submit aprogram/component/library to a project for storage. Multiple instancesof the acquisition tool 55 may exist for the different types of contentbeing stored or accessed in the content infrastructure 12. The metadatadatabase 65 stores information about the program/component/library(e.g., type of operating system it runs on, a version, a date submitted,etc) elements stored in the content infrastructure 12. There may bemultiple instances of the metadata database 65. The content managementtool 54 provides a web or application interface to content within thecontent framework system 44.

The content association tool infrastructure 17 comprises a registry tool58, an association database 64, and an association creation tool 75. Theregistry tool 58 is for developing a registry comprising theassociations (e.g., metadata) that connect content across the differentsystems (i.e., the shared source system 12 a, the distribution system 12b, the management system 12 c, and the remote services system 12 d). Theregistry tool 58 links and provides associations for the information(i.e., content within content management system 12 a . . . 12 d) so thatthe individual teams within the organization may locate associatedcontent within the content management systems 12 a . . . 12 d tocollaborate with each other and provide solutions to problems existingwithin the content. The association database 64 is for storing theregistry comprising the associations (e.g., metadata). The associationcreation tool 75 is for developing (i.e., creating), updating, ordeleting the associations (e.g., metadata) that connect content acrossthe different systems (i.e., the shared source system 12 a, thedistribution system 12 b, the management system 12 c, and the remoteservices system 12 d). The association creation tool 75 links andprovides associations for the information (i.e., content within contentmanagement system 12 a . . . 12 d) so that innovators 72 and exploiters74 (i.e., a consumer of content as described infra) within theorganization or organizations may locate associated content within thecontent management systems 12 a . . . 12 d to collaborate with eachother and provide solutions to problems existing within the content. Thecontent flow management infrastructure 19 cannot associate contentacross the content management systems 12 a . . . 12 d because thesystems exist in separate instances of the components (i.e., acquisitiontool 54, content management tool 55, and metadata database 65) and donot have the same content structures. The associations stored in theassociations infrastructure 17 reflect the entities of the contentstored in each content management system (12 a . . . 12 d) and do notreflect a structure of the content in the content management system 12 a. . . 12 d existing in the content infrastructure 12 or the instances ofthe metadata database 65. Content that is created and input throughcontent flow management infrastructure 19 into content infrastructure 12comprises association information (metadata) that is created and used bythe registry tool 58. The association information may be createddynamically each time content is accessed in the content infrastructure12 or it may be stored in the association database 64. The registry alsocontains metadata mappings (i.e., the registry) across the differentcontent managements systems 12 a . . . 12 d to bridge across thesystems.

Users of the content framework system 44 are comprised of innovators 72,exploiters 74, and governance 70. An innovator 72 is a user who createsnew content or contributes to existing content within the contentframework system 44. An innovator 72 is a creator of content. Anexploiter 74 is a user who is looking for content within the contentframework system 44, but does not contribute content. An exploiter 74 isa consumer of content. A governance 70 is a user that controls thecomponents within the content framework system 44. The governance 70controls access and security to the content within the content frameworksystem 44. A user may be any of the three types and may move between thetypes. For example, an exploiter 74 who finds a technology (content)that they are interested in may become an innovator 72 if they start tocontribute content to the content framework system 44. An innovator 72might become a governance 70 if they set controls on the content theycreate.

The interface infrastructure 18 provides exploiters 74 and governance 70access to the content stored in the content infrastructure 12. Thisaccess is gained either through the content association infrastructure17 or the content flow management infrastructure 19. If a user(exploiters 74 or governance 70) is accessing the content flowmanagement 19 directly from the interface 18, then only the individualcontent management systems 12 a . . . 12 d may be accessedindependently. If a user (exploiters 74 or governance 70) is accessingthe content flow management 19 through the content association 17, thenall content within the content infrastructure 12 is accessible as aresult of the associations and mappings in the registry tool 58. Theinterface infrastructure 18 comprises a portal 59 (e.g. a webapplication or any other interface that may be used by a user of thecontent framework system 44 to locate and view content within thecontent management systems 12 a . . . 12 d) and a discovery component63. The discovery component 63 is used to perform searches across thecontent flow management infrastructure 19 or the content associationinfrastructure 17. An innovator 72 may interact through the portal 59,as part of the interface infrastructure 18, which visually rendersselected content and existing associations on a display apparatus (e.g.,display apparatus 5 in FIG. 1). The interface infrastructure 18 allowsthe innovator 72 to interact with the association creation tool 75 toretrieve selected content, existing associations (from the associationdatabase 64), and a registry comprising the associations. The existingassociations are presented via the visual rendering to the innovator 72through the portal 59. The association creation tool 75 allows theinnovator 72 to create, update, or delete associations related to theselected content and based on the visual rendering. The associationcreation tool 75 may create and store the new associations back into theassociation database 64. The registry tool 58 creates a new updatedregistry comprising the new associations and any existing associations.

The access and security infrastructure 30 is used to control access toprocess and content in content management systems 12 a . . . 12 d,infrastructures 12, 17, 18, and 19, joint development 24, and community28. The access and security infrastructure 30 comprises anadministration tool 33, an access and security tool 32, and a controltool 60. There may exist multiple instances of any of these components.The control tool 60 is used by a governance party 70 (e.g., anadministrator) to control specific parties (e.g., teams comprisingexploiters 74, innovators 72, etc.) that may access or manipulatecontent and associations within the content framework system 44. Theaccess and security tool 32 comprises the tools to allow administrators(e.g., governance 70) of the content framework system 44 the ability tocontrol parties (i.e., users) who may access or manipulate contentwithin the content framework system 44.

The content manipulation infrastructure 26 comprises the tools to allowteams within an organization to create, modify, and promote differenttypes content within the content framework system 44. The contentmanipulation infrastructure 26 comprises an editor that may be used byan innovator 72 to create or manipulate content used in content flowmanagement infrastructure 19 or shared source tool 25 in the jointdevelopment infrastructure 24. The content created by the editor 27 isused in the content management systems 12 a . . . 12 d. The communityinfrastructure 28 comprises the tools (community tool 29) to allowdifferent teams within an organization collaborate and add value to thecontent within the content framework system 44. The joint developmentinfrastructure 24 comprises the tools (shared source tool 25) to allowdifferent teams within the organization to leverage knowledge andtechnology regarding the content within the content framework system 44.An innovator 72 comprises a party (e.g., a technical team) creatingcontent within the content framework system 44. An exploiter 74comprises a party (e.g., a technical team) modifying the content withinthe content framework system 44.

An example of usage for the content framework system 44 of FIGS. 1-3 isdescribed as follows. An innovator 72 a invents a new technology to beused. The innovator 72 a creates a patent disclosure and softwareapplication for the new technology and submits them into an intellectualproperty system that is comprised by the content flow managementinfrastructure 19 through an instance of an acquisition tool 55. Thepatent disclosure stored in the content database 53 in the contentinfrastructure 12 describes the key invention points and how it isunique from prior art. The innovator 72 a, if they have not done soalready, starts a project to develop the technology and creates adatabase table to store project documents (design docs, requirementsdocs, etc.) in another instance of the content database 53 throughanother instance of the acquisition tool 55. This step also happensbetween the content flow management 19 and the content infrastructure12. A team is then put together that is managed through jointdevelopment infrastructure 24 and controlled by access and securityinfrastructure 30. If the technology is implemented as a softwareapplication, code is developed using the editor 27 in the contentmanipulation 26 infrastructure and stored in the source database 48 sothat a team of developers can access and contribute to the code. Accessto who is allowed to create and/or modify the code is controlled by theaccess and security infrastructure 30.

As the project is completed, content is created about the softwareapplication (e.g., marketing materials, online manuals and help files,pricing, etc.) that is managed in yet another instance of contentmanagement system 12 c. These documents are made available through anetwork, Intranet, Internet, or other communication system for users toview. The developed product is packaged as an installable application,along with documentation on how to use, install, etc., and sent to thedistribution system 12 b that will ship physical copies of theapplications to customers, or make an electronic version available fordownload by customers from the Internet or Intranet.

Another innovator 72 b is now looking to start a new project and islooking for the technology that was created by the innovator 72 a above(without any knowledge that the first innovator exists). A search of thecompany's Intranet from the interface 18 into a content flow managementinfrastructure 19 from an interface 18 using a discovery 63 direct tothe content flow management 19 might result in finding a description ofthe first innovator's 72 a product. The second innovator 72 b would thenneed to track down the first innovator and other people with knowledgeabout the project, project documentation, and source code or librariesto determine if that technology is usable in the second innovator'sproject. All of the needed information may not be part of the contentthat was discovered in the original search for the technology. Withoutthe invention, the new innovator would have to find and search throughall of the content management systems 12 a . . . 12 d and all instanceswithin them to locate technologies that could be exploited. The sourcecode would be in one system, general information in another, projectdescriptions and people with knowledge in another, the usable programsin yet another, and IP in a final system. Each of these separate systemsmay exist in many separate instances in large organizations ororganizations that are partnering together. It is very time consuming tolook for available technologies within an organization and as a result,many groups reinvent the same idea over and over again. In the presentinvention, when the first innovator 72 a creates content in each of thedifferent systems 12 a . . . 12 d, meta-information about each documentis collected by agents and stored in a registry 58 in the contentassociation infrastructure 17. The meta-information contains the name ofthe author, the type of doc (source code, design doc, description,etc.), short description, and other information that describes thecontent at a high level. The registry tool 58 may look across documentsand based on the relationship between meta-information, infer thatdocuments are related and make a connection. This connection can occurdynamically or can be stored in the association database 64. When thesecond innovator 72 b is looking for a technology, a search resulting inany of the documents created by the first innovator 72 a wouldautomatically show the connections to the other documents. This way thesecond innovator 72 b can follow the connection trail to find allmaterial related to the technology being investigated.

The second innovator 72 b could then put a team of developers togetherto further develop the first innovator's 72 a technology to be used in anew product. Both teams of developers could co-work together through thecommunity 28 and the joint development tools 24 on the base technologyand feed more information into the framework 44. Parts of the system,such as source code and design docs, would be shared and provide a moreefficient way to develop and deploy products, The steps for the 2^(nd)innovator's team would be the same as the first's, but with a couple ofcommon, shared points.

Any exploiter 74 (e.g., 74 a or 74 b) using the invention could look atan organization's knowledge (content) and be able to locate and assignvalue to available intellectual capital. By looking at the connectionsto and from a discovered document, an exploited can see who is using anidea, what has been developed, and how many things have been deployedbased on an idea or a set of ideas.

FIG. 4 illustrates a computer system 90 used for linking together andproviding associations for content within a content framework system, inaccordance with embodiments of the present invention. The computersystem 90 comprises a processor 91, an input device 92 coupled to theprocessor 91, an output device 93 coupled to the processor 91, andmemory devices 94 and 95 each coupled to the processor 91. The inputdevice 92 may be, inter alia, a keyboard, a mouse, etc. The outputdevice 93 may be, inter alia, a printer, a plotter, a computer screen, amagnetic tape, a removable hard disk, a floppy disk, etc. The memorydevices 94 and 95 may be, inter alia, a hard disk, a floppy disk, amagnetic tape, an optical storage such as a compact disc (CD) or adigital video disc (DVD), a dynamic random access memory (DRAM), aread-only memory (ROM), etc. The memory device 95 includes a computercode 97. The computer code 97 includes an algorithm for linking togetherand providing associations for content within a content frameworksystem. The processor 91 executes the computer code 97. The memorydevice 94 includes input data 96. The input data 96 includes inputrequired by the computer code 97. The output device 93 displays outputfrom the computer code 97. Either or both memory devices 94 and 95 (orone or more additional memory devices not shown in FIG. 9) may be usedas a computer usable medium (or a computer readable medium or a programstorage device) having a computer readable program code embodied thereinand/or having other data stored therein, wherein the computer readableprogram code comprises the computer code 97. Generally, a computerprogram product (or, alternatively, an article of manufacture) of thecomputer system 90 may comprise said computer usable medium (or saidprogram storage device).

Thus the present invention discloses a process for deploying orintegrating computing infrastructure, comprising integratingcomputer-readable code into the computer system 90, wherein the code incombination with the computer system 90 is capable of performing amethod used for linking together and providing associations for contentwithin a content framework system.

While FIG. 4 shows the computer system 90 as a particular configurationof hardware and software, any configuration of hardware and software, aswould be known to a person of ordinary skill in the art, may be utilizedfor the purposes stated supra in conjunction with the particularcomputer system 90 of FIG. 4. For example, the memory devices 94 and 95may be portions of a single memory device rather than separate memorydevices.

While embodiments of the present invention have been described hereinfor purposes of illustration, many modifications and changes will becomeapparent to those skilled in the art. Accordingly, the appended claimsare intended to encompass all such modifications and changes as fallwithin the true spirit and scope of this invention.

1. A content framework system comprising: a content infrastructure comprising content management systems, wherein each of said content management systems comprises content; an association creation tool for generating a first set of associations metadata linking said content management systems together; a user interface system for visually rendering said content and said first set of associations metadata.
 2. The content framework system of claim 1, wherein said first set of associations metadata comprises a first index describing said content from each of said content management systems, and wherein said first index is for cross referencing a first portion of said content from a first content management system of said content management systems with a second portion of said content from a second content management system of said content management systems.
 3. The content framework system of claim 2, further comprising a registry tool for generating a registry comprising said first set of associations metadata.
 4. The content framework system of claim 3, wherein said association creation tool is for generating a second set of associations metadata linking said content management systems together based on said visual rendering.
 5. The content framework system of claim 4, wherein said second set of associations metadata comprises a second index describing said content from each of said content management systems, and wherein said second index is for cross referencing a third portion of said content from said first content management system of said content management systems with a fourth portion of said content from said second content management system of said content management systems.
 6. The content framework system of claim 5, wherein said registry tool is for generating a modified registry comprising said first set of associations metadata and said second set of associations metadata, wherein said modified registry replaces said registry.
 7. The content framework system of claim 6, further comprising a database for storing said first set of associations metadata and said second set of associations metadata.
 8. A method, comprising: providing a content framework system comprising a content infrastructure, an association creation tool, and a user interface system, wherein the content infrastructure comprises content management systems, and wherein each of said content management systems comprises content; generating by said association creation tool, a first set of associations metadata linking said content management systems together; and visually rendering by said user interface system, said content and said first set of associations metadata.
 9. The method of claim 10, wherein said first set associations metadata comprises a first index describing said content from each of said content management systems, and wherein the method further comprises: cross referencing by said first index, a first portion of said content from a first content management system of said content management systems with a second portion of said content from a second content management system of said content management systems.
 10. The method of claim 9, wherein said content framework system further comprises a registry tool, and wherein said method further comprises: generating by said registry tool, a registry comprising said first set of associations metadata.
 11. The method of claim 10, further comprising generating by said association creation tool, a second set of associations metadata linking said content management systems together based on said visual rendering.
 12. The method of claim 11, wherein said second set of associations metadata comprises a second index describing said content from each of said content management systems, and wherein the method further comprises: cross referencing by said second index, a third portion of said content from said first content management system of said content management systems with a fourth portion of said content from said second content management system of said content management systems.
 13. The method of claim 12, further comprising generating by said registry tool, a modified registry comprising said first set of associations metadata and said second set of associations metadata, wherein said modified registry replaces said registry.
 14. The method of claim 13, wherein said content framework system further comprises a database, and wherein said method further comprises: storing by said database, said first set of associations metadata and said second set of associations metadata.
 15. A process for integrating computing infrastructure, comprising integrating computer-readable code into a computing system, wherein the code in combination with the computing system comprises a content framework system comprising a content infrastructure, an association creation tool, and a user interface system, wherein the content infrastructure system comprises content management systems, wherein each of said content management systems comprises content; and wherein the code in combination with the computing system is adapted to implement a method for performing the steps of: generating by said association creation tool, a first set of associations metadata linking said content management systems together; and visually rendering by said user interface system, said content and said first set of associations metadata.
 16. The process of claim 15, wherein said first set of associations metadata comprises a first index describing said content from each of said content management systems, and wherein the method further comprises: cross referencing by said first index, a first portion of said content from a first content management system of said content management systems with a second portion of said content from a second content management system of said content management systems.
 17. The process of claim 16, wherein said content framework system further comprises a registry tool, and wherein said method further comprises: generating by said registry tool, a registry comprising said first set of associations metadata.
 18. The process of claim 17, wherein the method further comprises: generating by said association creation tool, a second set of associations metadata linking said content management systems together based on said visual rendering.
 19. The process of claim 18, wherein said second set of associations metadata comprises a second index describing said content from each of said content management systems, and wherein the method further comprises: cross reference by said second index, a third portion of said content from said first content management system of said content management systems with a fourth portion of said content from said second content management system of said content management systems.
 20. The process of claim 19, wherein the method further comprises: generating by said registry tool, a modified registry comprising said first set of associations metadata and said second set of associations metadata, wherein said modified registry replaces said registry.
 21. The process of claim 20, wherein said content framework system further comprises a database, and wherein said method further comprises: storing by said database, said first set of associations metadata and said second set of associations metadata.
 22. A computer program product, comprising a computer usable medium having a computer readable program code embodied therein, said computer readable program code comprising an algorithm adapted to implement a method for linking content management systems within a content infrastructure, said content management systems each comprising content, said method comprising the steps of: generating by an association creation tool, a first set of associations metadata linking said content management systems together; and visually rendering by a user interface system, said content and said first set of associations metadata.
 23. The computer program product of claim 22, wherein said first set of associations metadata comprises a first index describing said content from each of said content management systems, and wherein the method further comprises: cross reference by said first index, a first portion of said content from a first content management system of said content management systems with a second portion of said content from a second content management system of said content management systems.
 24. The computer program product of claim 23, wherein said content framework system further comprises a registry tool, and wherein said method further comprises: generating by said registry tool, a registry comprising said first set of associations metadata.
 25. The computer program product of claim 24, wherein the method further comprises: generating by said association creation tool, a second set of associations metadata linking said content management systems together based on said visual rendering.
 26. The computer program product of claim 25, wherein said second set of associations metadata comprises a second index describing said content from each of said content management systems, and wherein the method further comprises: cross referencing by said second index, a third portion of said content from said first content management system of said content management systems with a fourth portion of said content from said second content management system of said content management systems.
 27. The computer program product of claim 26, wherein the method further comprises: generating by said registry tool, a modified registry comprising said first set of associations metadata and said second set of associations metadata, wherein said modified registry replaces said registry.
 28. The computer program product of claim 27, wherein said content framework system further comprises a database, and wherein said method further comprises: storing by said database, said first set of associations metadata and said second set of associations metadata. 